A lot has been made of the Tea Party movement lately. Supposedly a wave of conservative resistance is about to sweep into Washington and stand up to disastrous ideas like making sure more Americans have health care coverage, and asking the rich to chip in with more taxes during tough budgetary times.

Well, if you all are so conservative, you’ll love the idea of getting cars off of welfare. There are at least three major ways that cars are on welfare and it’s about time we put a stop to it.

1) Cars are on welfare because they almost never pay for their own parking
That’s right, parking costs something, and you almost never pay for it directly as a driver. When you go to the store, for example, the business gives it up for free and everybody pays for it in more expensive goods whether they drive to the store or not. Talk about socialism. Read The High Cost of Free Parking.

2) Cars are on welfare because gasoline taxes don’t pay the full cost of road maintenance.
Don’t take my word for it. USA Today covered it recently. The federal gas tax hasn’t been raised since the early 1990s, even to adjust for inflation.

Follow Streetsblog

Transportation for America

America's transportation system is half a century behind--causing unnecessary pollution, expense, and congestion. We need our leaders to invest in public transportation, high-speed passenger rail, streets safe for biking and walking, maintaining our roads and transit systems, and green innovation.